their relation to the Progress of Science. 187
he was induced to undertake, and lived to complete, a third
and supplementary volume. This equalled in bulk the pre-
ceding volumes, and from the collections of Sloane in -Jamaica,
of Father Camelli in the Philippines, of Petiver, and others,
included no less than 11,700 species, bringing the total of the
entire work up to over 18,000 species. For these three folios,
of nearly 1000 pages each, Ray received £30 each, or about
threepence a page.
With invincible energy, when 76 years of age, he turned
his attention to the classification of insects, some classes of
which he had carefully studied in former years in conjunction
with his friend Dr. Martin Lister ; and he died, as a naturalist
might well wish to die, in the midst of his work, on January
17th, 1705. In the British Museum there is still preserved,
in his own neat handwriting, the touching farewell letter
which he wrote to Sir Hans Sloane, in the middle of which
his strength failed him, and he was forced to end abruptly :
in Dr. Derham's edition of his Letters, published in 1718, is
included his dying confession of faith made to the vicar of
his parish, and from his own letters to Sloane we learn that
his disciple, Samuel Dale, to whom he gave all his collections,
was with him a few hours before his death. He was buried,
according to his own request, in the churchyard at Black
Notley, near his ancestors, having declined a tomb in the
chancel, offered him by the vicar; and, though the monu-
ment erected over his grave has been repeatedly restored at
the expense of scientific men, of him it may be said with
peculiar truth that the best monuments of his life of un-
ceasing devotion at the shrine of Nature are those works
which, if they ever cease to be read, can never cease to bear
fruit in the continued advance of Science along the sure road
which he first sketched out.
His 'Methodus Insectorum,' in which he divides them
virtually into the Metabola and Ametabola, was issued in the
year after his death, and was afterwards prefixed to the
'Historia Insectorum,' published in 1710, under the editorial
care of Dr. Derham, then rector of Upminster. This com-
pletes the lengthy list of the contributions to science and